In defense of blue blood.

Thanksgiving Eve Traditions

Where you gather on Thanksgiving Eve is just as important as what’s on the menu on Turkey Day itself.

Dorrian’s.

IF Thanksgiving is about turkey,the day before is about toasting. “It’s known as reunion night,” says New Yorker James Tang, a banker and frequent patron of Dorrian’s Red Hand, on the Upper East Side. “Dorrian’s is the perfect meeting place because New Yorkers, especially Upper East Siders, hung out there during college. They go by Dorrian’s because they know they’ll see everyone they’ve ever met,” adds Tang, who also bartends there for fun. “It’s the natives’ night out.” That’s the general consensus among establishments. “It’s always a busy bar night, because people are home visiting friends and family,” says Bill Timpson, co-owner of Buckram Stables Café in Locust Valley, New York. “There are a lot of people who went to high school here, and now they’re coming back in their forties or fifties.” A crowd is to be expected. “We put an extra bartender on; we ramp up.”

Fifth-generation New Yorker Michael R. McCarty has brought this tradition to Palm Beach, where he owns McCarty’s, a restaurant that draws the likes of Marjorie Gubelmann, Topper Mortimer, Samantha Boardman, and Bobby Leidy, the grandson of Lilly Pulitzer. “We actually don’t even open on Thanksgiving,” McCarty says, but on Wednesday, one of the restaurant’s biggest nights of the year, the terrace is as busy as it gets. “They all show up, and it’s a crazy, crazy weekend all the way through.”